Phenomenological correlates of metabolic activity in 18 patients with chronic schizophrenia

Using [11C]-deoxy-D-glucose and positron emission tomography (PET), the authors measured brain metabolism in 18 patients with chronic schizophrenia to assess which of the metabolic measures from two test conditions was more closely related to the patients' differing clinical characteristics. The two conditions were resting and activation, and an eye tracking task was used. Patients with more negative symptoms showed lower global metabolic rates and more severe hypofrontality than did the patients with fewer negative symptoms. Differences among the patients were distinguished by the task: sicker patients failed to show a metabolic activation response. These findings suggest that cerebral metabolic patterns reflect clinical characteristics of schizophrenic patients.